Justin delighted to regain his Luton spot so quickly

Mike Simmonds

Hatters defender James Justin was relieved to be back in the team so swiftly after recovering from his calf problem.

The 18-year-old had his first taste of an injury as a first team pro recently when he had to miss out against Leyton Orient, picking up a the slight strain in the warm-up.

The manager’s showed great faith in me. I recovered well from the injury, and got relatively straight back into the team.

James Justin

Stephen O’Donnell stepped in and helped Luton to a 2-1 win, keeping his place for the next two games, but Justin was back for the Exeter FA Cup match, and retained his spot on Saturday as Luton beat Accrington 1-0.

Justin said: “I was gutted, devastated at the time, but things happen like that in football and you just try your best to when you get back, get back in the team.

“The manager’s showed great faith in me. I recovered well from the injury, and got relatively straight back into the team, but it doesn’t matter about that, it matters about points on the board and keeping us up in that top three.”

Justin did concede there is a healthy rivalry between himself and O’Donnell, saying: “We’re as good as each other, when he steps in he’ll do well and when I step in I’ll do well. We have to keep that competitiveness so that both of us rise.

“We’ve spoken to each other on a few occasions, no hard feelings, but you want to be in the team.

“When the other’s in the team you’ve got to encourage them as it’s all about the team in the end.”

Justin helped Town keep back-to-back clean sheets in the league for the first time this term at the weekend, and believes that having a consistent back-line now will only help.

Ahead of the trip to Morecambe this afternoon, he added: “If we can keep more clean sheets, we’ve always got the edge up front to score a goal or two and if we keep it clean at the back we can pick up plenty of one or 2-0s.

“We’re settled as a back four, even if someone comes in, we’re all as good as each other and I think we understand each other.

“At the start of the season we were a bit shaky at the back, but now we’ve come together more as a unit.